Christian Prayers for Mother's Day

The Rev’d Fr. P.S. Winton


From the days of the Kings and Judges in the Old Testament forward, Holy Scripture measures the morality of believers, in significant measure based on our care of “widows and orphans’. By extension, our call to be mindful of mothers lies deep within the DNA of the faith.

It is important that God incorporates Motherhood in His decision to enter the world and redeem it. The ways God might have come into the world are without number and yet God chose to enter the world through Mary and provide for himself a Mother. It is as if God looked at the human condition and concluded that not only is it “not good for man to be alone” but that “it is not good to enter the human condition without a mother.” And so Blessed Mary is called to the Ministry of Motherhood,

Mother’s Day is essentially a secular expression, yet Christians have, throughout our history, taken that which is secular and re-visioned it with sensitivities of our faith and thereby elevated that expression into something deeper – in this case – Motherhood as part of the Divine Plan. That said, Motherhood and the relationships thereof, are fraught with all the dynamics of human relationships. The prayers below seek to celebrate motherhood and yet realize some sensitivity to these realities.


Mothers as Part of God’s Divine Plan

Almighty God and Father we give you thanks for Mothers. We give you thanks for wrapping the loving arms of motherhood around your creating, nurturing and sustaining work in the world. We give you thanks for the wonder, grace and blessing that transform women to mothers and all the teeming life that is part of that wonder. We give you thanks for the fears and challenges of motherhood and for the courage, bravery and sacrifice it requires. We celebrate motherhood as you envision it as an expression of the most tender, unyielding, uncompromising, unconditional love within the capacity of humanity. Amen.


Thanks for My Mother - Imperfect

I give thanks to you O Lord, for the goodness and love you have made known to me by giving me a mother to love me, to care for me, to in so many tender ways, live for me. I hold in my heart sweet memories of my mother and I hold in my treasure of hope exciting dreams for future blessings with this woman who birthed me and loves me. Help me Lord, to hold in holy affection both the gifts my mother has for mothering and some perspective and grace for mistakes along the way. Where she slipped may I forgive, where I have failed her may she find a place of forgiveness in her heart. Where we are apart Lord Christ, help to find a way back to one another’s heart. In all things Lord, I know that my Mother meant well for me and for all whom she loves and I give you thanks for her life and mine – together. Amen.


For My Mother – Deceased

Lord God, in the most simple terms I miss my mother. I miss how she somehow automatically knew that which never occurred to me. I miss that which she somehow knew, that which I am not sure I will ever figure out. I miss that she knew when to be tender and when to be tough and managed them so they were both strong. I miss big things like how to talk about a breaking heart and terrible loss. I miss the little things like the smell of her and the feel of her hand on my cheek and her voice as I drifted to sleep as a child. More than anything Lord, I just miss her presence – the blessed assurance of her company. I place my hope Lord, in an eternal promise that I will one day be with her; but for now I need to just lift up the truth of my missing her and ask you the bless that. Amen.


A Husband’s Prayer for the Mother of His Children

I lift my voice in thanks to you Lord God, that you have made my wife a mother. In her ministry to our children I see some glimpse of the great hope you have for all of us – that we will care one for another. I am grateful that she knows they are sick before they do, that she knows they are going to be sad before that event takes place, that though exhausted she will still lift or hold or listen to the child one more time – and in that generosity change everything. I am grateful that even when she is at the end of her rope – she finds enough of a string to hold on to so that we can climb back up to a safer place. Help me Lord, to be supportive, to be encouraging and not a child myself; to be not merely willing to engage but to be fully engaged in supporting this role of Mother with the full love I hold in my heart for her and the children we both treasure. Amen.


Women who desire to be Mothers

God above – I know that within you resides both Father and Mother and every expression of generosity and love known in the Universe. I come before you like millions of women before me and I lift the same prayer they lifted, cry the same cry choked throughout the millennia, and shed tears from the common pool of women who come to you seeking a child. I believe you can make this possible for me and so I too lift my prayer. I will do my part, whatever that may be. I believe I will be a good mother and I long for that life. Please bring me a child Lord, and if not please bring me peace. Amen.